the campus of miami dade college, and joining us on set is another author to introduce you to. this is brian latell, here's his book. if you could start, though, by giving us your background. particularly, your cia background. >> i worked at cia and the national intelligence council in washington for 35 years. >> in what capacity? >> ultimately, became the national intelligence officer for latin america, which is a three or four star military

equivalent. i was a civilian, of course, but it's a substantial position. i had responsibility for all of latin america and cuba on the analytic side of intelligence. >> what does that mean? >> well, i was notysç a field operative. i did not -- i did not go out and conduct espionage. i did not meet foreign agents. i was basically, most of the career at headquarters, in virginia, i wrote national intelligence estimates, quite a few on cuba over the years, and on many of the other latin american countries. >> before we get into fidel castro and his regime, how did you get interested in that work? >> i was a student at georgetown university where i later taught for 25 years as an adjunct. teaches here now at the university of miami, but i was attracted to the foreign service school at georgetown. it was a time when a lot of us, my generation, were inspired by jack kennedy's ask not speech,

ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. i devoted a long, long time, 35 years, to national service. >> and were you recruited by the cia? >> i threw myself at them. >> brian, the book is called "castro's secrets," if you would, describe the cia of cuba or the secret police, whatever you worked with down there. >> well, you know, i guess one of the major findings of the book is that the cuban intelligence service, beginning in the early 1960s, very quickly became one of the four or five best in the world, rivalling the cia, the kgb, israeli intelligence service, which to a large extent, the cuban model was based on the israeli service. small communities in danger, urgently needing -- cuban

revolution like the israeli government formed in 1948, urgently needing to defend themselves. the israelis against all of their neighbors, and the cuban resolution against the united states. the eisenhower administration, and then the kennedy administration, were determined to rid cuba of fidel castro. there was the bay of pigs in april 19611. the kennedy administration humiliated by castro because he won. they resorted to a whole series, years of very elaborate operations and assassination plots to kill fidel castro. jack kennedy did not want to go into re-election in 1964 with fidel castro still in power. >> do you think if jfk had survived, fidel castro would not have survived until 64? >> an interesting question. one of the most interesting personalities i wrote about in

the book, a very senior cia officer, fits -- fitzgerald, says if kennedy had lived, castro would still not have been in power by 1964. fitzgerald, behind the most detailed, the most sophisticated assassination plot to kill castro, truly believed that. >> who is renadlod? >> he was a recruited spy by the cia, a man who had been very close to the castro brothers, a hero of the revolution, a trained assassin, accomplished assassin, recruited by the cia after a series of meetings in europe and latin america. he told the cia that he despised castro, turned against him, and he wanted to assassinate him.

this was music to the ears of under tremendous pressure from the kennedy administration, especially bobby kennedy, to get the term -- the term of art was to get rid of fidel castro. he was recruited as a spy for the agency, and he was trained in demolition, in france, by cia officers, trained in secret writing. he was their greatest hope to assassinate fidel crass trough. >> and? >> he turned out to be a double agent, peter. he was really working for fidel castro all along. the cia did not know this. the kennedys did not know this. i proved this, i think, beyond a reasonable doubt. i was sources, cuban intelligence, who saw documents in havana that prove this, and there are declassified cia documents that give me added

assurance that he was a double agent working for fidel. he knew, therefore, not only that the cia was trying to kill him, to kill castro, but that bobby kennedy, and therefore, jack kennedy, were behind the plotting. >> did you meet with him? >> i interviewed him here in miami a few years ago. he shared -- he shared interspection with me. i asked him in particular why did you want to meet bobby kennedy? he told a cia handler, who i also interviewed, by the way, told the handler that i want to meet with bobby kennedy. i want to hear from him that, that you all have these approval in the plotting against castro, that you have the approval of the highest american authorities. he did not meet with him, but the man i met earlier did, and

he met with him in the cia safe house in paris, told him he was bobby kennedy's personal representative so the double agent went back and told fidel now we know for sure bobby kennedy, no doubt speaking with the approval of his brother, wants you to be killed. this is one of the most remarkable findings of my research.úgr >> brian latell, what assets has the united states over the years had in cuba? >> that's very hard to say, and it's very difficult for me to, you know, admit to anything specific because i'm obviously sworn to protect cia sources and methods, and this book was cleared by the cia with very, very minimal changes, a dozen words or so, but today, cuba, i don't think, i've been retired for 14 years so i really can't say what kind of assets the cia has today, targeted on cuba, but i would imagine that cuba is a

lower priority than it was in years past, a lower priority today than the obvious higher priorities, iran, the middle east, syria, north korea, china, russia, and so forth. i would imagine considerably lower priority. >> did cuba policy wax and wean with each new administration? >> it did. it did. the most ferocious opposition was in the kennedy years. jack kennedy, as i said, was really determined to do something about the cuba problem. he was obsessed. hue millñhr -- huh mill -- humiliated by castro in the bay of pigs. kennedy's obsession was vietnam so cuba declined precipitously. presidents like ford, carter, made very serious efforts to achieve that with fidel castro, the opposite of what kennedy was

doing, and so, yes, cuba maxed and waned. a different kind of priority over the 50 years for 10 or 11 american presidents. >> on the reverse side, does cuba have good assets? did cuba have good assets in the u.s.? has the castro regime tried to assassinate a u.s. president? >> i don't think castro ever had a direct hand in an assassination plot against an american president, but i describe in the book some of the most startling information i acquired from cuban defectors, one in particular, the highest level, most knowledgeable cuban intelligence officer ever to defect to the united states, he told me that he was convinced that castro knew, and cuban intelligence knew in advance that lee harvey oswald was going to shoot ate